Dr. Kenneth Anderson, MD, PhD Dana Farber Cancer Institute Interview Date: January 22, 2016 

 Dr. Kenneth Anderson, MD, PhD of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute joins Myeloma Crowd Radio to outline the most important work being done in multiple myeloma in the coming year. He shares the top 5 areas of immunotherapy and the work in particular in checkpoint inhibitors (PD1 and PDL-1) that is looking very hopeful. He applauds the recent approvals of 7 new myeloma treatments in 2015 but says "our job is not done." Dr. Anderson emphasizes the importance of clinical trials to make new treatments available in the clinic for us all. He believes that although stem cell transplant is still a very core therapy, the myeloma "backbone" of treatments may evolve to include immunotherapies like vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and oral therapies. He notes the continued importance of studying the genomics in myeloma and continues to work on "blowing the fuse" of myeloma's survival by altering its signaling. He believes that myeloma has weaknesses that can be taken advantage of and is working in the lab to provide ways to turn it against itself. He looks forward to a new year with better tolerated HDAC inhibitors, oral agents, vaccines, additional progress in checkpoint inhibitors and the study of how gene expressions are controlled and why they mutate (epigenetics). 

Thanks to our episode sponsor, Takeda Oncology